---
type: claim
domain: internet-finance
description: "Computational complexity theory establishes that optimal job-shop scheduling becomes intractable at scale beyond trivial cases"
confidence: proven
source: "ScienceDirect review article on Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem, 2023; established operations research result"
created: 2026-03-11
sourced_from:
- inbox/archive/internet-finance/2023-00-00-sciencedirect-flexible-job-shop-scheduling-review.md
---

# General job-shop scheduling is NP-complete for more than two machines

The classical Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) is NP-complete for m > 2 machines, meaning no polynomial-time algorithm exists to find optimal solutions for non-trivial instances. This is a foundational result in operations research and computational complexity theory.

This matters because it establishes the computational boundary between tractable and intractable scheduling problems. When designing coordination systems (like Teleo's pipeline architecture), understanding which side of this boundary your problem falls on determines whether you need heuristics or can use exact optimization.

## Evidence

The ScienceDirect review states: "Classical Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP): n jobs, m machines, fixed operation-to-machine mapping, NP-complete for m > 2."

This is a well-established result in operations research. The proof shows that even with fixed operation-to-machine mappings, finding the optimal schedule that minimizes makespan (total completion time) requires exponential time in the worst case once you have three or more machines.

The Flexible JSSP (FJSP) adds machine assignment as a decision variable on top of sequencing, making it strictly harder than classical JSSP.

## Implications

For any multi-stage coordination system:
1. If your problem maps to general JSSP with >2 stages, you cannot guarantee optimal solutions at scale
2. Heuristics and approximation algorithms become necessary
3. Problem structure matters — special cases (like flow-shop or hybrid flow-shop) can be easier
4. The choice of coordination mechanism should account for computational tractability

This is why [[hybrid-flow-shop-scheduling-with-simple-dispatching-rules-performs-within-5-10-percent-of-optimal-for-homogeneous-workers]] matters — it identifies a tractable special case that applies to pipeline architectures.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[hybrid-flow-shop-scheduling-with-simple-dispatching-rules-performs-within-5-10-percent-of-optimal-for-homogeneous-workers]]
- domains/internet-finance/_map

Topics:
- domains/internet-finance/_map